Friday, November 20, 2009

MEDIA RELEASE20 November 2009For immediate release

Today is the Transgender Day of RemembranceToday, the Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked across the world and Europe. This Day was established following a murder of Rita Hester in 1998 and serves as a reminder of existing prejudice, hatred and discrimination against trans people.Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring Project reveals that more than 160 murders of trans people in the last 12 months of which 16 took place in Europe:Turkey – 6Italy – 4UK – 2Spain – 2Serbia – 1Russia – 1.The number of murders is however only the tip of the iceberg with regards to trans discrimination and marginalisation in European societies today. Trans people experience high level of discrimination in employment, access to healthcare and other goods and services. Trans people are also particularly vulnerable to violence and hate crimes. This high level of discrimination has this year been formally acknowledged by Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner, who launched his “Human Rights and Gender Identity Issue paper”.ILGA-Europe takes today’s occasion to extend its appeal to all European governments to assess where they are scoring poorly in terms of Commissioner Hammarberg’s recommendations and address the gaps without further delay. ILGA-Europe calls on the European Commission and EU Member States to fully enforce the European Court of Justice’s jurisprudence through implementation of EU Gender Equality Directives vis-à-vis gender identify. Ends